Judith Gennett penned this review.
Some time back, Scottish Gaelic singer Mairi MacInnes was commissioned by the BBC to record music for a series called “Songs And Rhymes.” This children’s album is a collection of MacInnes’ favorites from the series. The songs are ones learnt during her childhood on South Uist in the Hebrides as well as some she composed herself.
Does this all-Gaelic album really sound like it’s for kids? Not really, unless they speak Gaelic. Some songs are very suspicious. “Hi a Waa, Waa Waa” has got to be about Red Indians or perhaps Blue Picts jumping and reeling around a camp fire to the rhythm of a Celtic harp. “Aon, dha, tri/One Two Three” has the springy little beat of a kids song as well some well-placed clucks and meows. “Bodach na Nollaig/Santa Claus” includes some “ho-hos.” But so many Gaelic lullabies and mouth music have been recorded as adult music that it’s the sound effects alone that tell the story! For example, with its odd dark style and guitar backing, who could guess that “No Stocainean” is a song about socks?
Of the 23 tracks, the only one I really recognized was “Leis an Lurgainn/Boat Song,” a genuine adult traditional song about high seas crashing on the mast. Nevertheless, I found many songs of diverse styles that seem familiar. Even most of the originals and covers sound traditional. One that bothers me is “Dannsaidh giomach ri crubag/The Lobster Shall Dance With the Crab,” credited to Chris Dillon and bubbling with water gurgles and fiddle music; I could swear the beginning of the song is somewhere on a Catherine-Ann MacPhee album.
In any event, none of this really matters, Gaelic singing is amongst the Earth’s most beautiful music, and MacInnes has one of the prettiest voices of today’s singers. The arrangements are uncluttered and tastefully fabricated by Tony McManus, principally on fiddle, and William Jackson, principally on Celtic harp. The songs are great, though likely of more interest to you than to your children.
(Greentrax, 2002)